“The day will come when man will recognize woman as his peer, not only at the fireside, but in councils of the nation. Then, and not until then, will there be the perfect comradeship, the ideal union between the sexes that shall result in the highest development of the race.” Susan B. Anthony

At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.” The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world’s first women’s rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York. NWHP.Org

We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. It may even be necessary to encounter the defeat so that we can know who we are. So that we can see, “Oh, that happened, and I rose. I did get knocked down flat in front of the whole world, and I rose. I didn’t run away; I rose right where I’d been knocked down.” That’s how you get to know yourself. Maya Angelou
“Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.” Hillary Clinton
“A gender-equal society would be one where the word ‘gender’ does not exist: where everyone can be themselves.” Gloria Steinem
True equality means holding everyone accountable in the same way, regardless of race, gender, faith, ethnicity – or political ideology. Monica Crowley
Give voice to what you know to be true, and do not be afraid of being disliked or exiled. I think that’s the hard work of standing up for what you see. Eve Ensler
It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent. Madeleine Albright
“We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States, be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever.” Susan B. Anthony, Declaration of Rights for Women, July 1876
“There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers.” Susan B. Anthony
I get very frustrated when I hear women saying, “Oh, feminism is passé,” because I think feminism means empowerment. Men can be feminists, too! Many men are feminists. We need feminism. It’s not against men; it’s about the empowerment of women. It’s the respect of women–giving women equal rights, the same opportunities. Annie Lennox
I always thought that people told you that you’re beautiful–that this was a title that was bestowed upon you, that it was other people’s responsibility to give you this title. And I’m sick of waiting, people! I think that the world is pretty cruel to women in what it considers beautiful and what it celebrates as beauty. And I think that it’s time to take this power into our own hands and to say, “You know what? I’m beautiful. I just am. And that’s my light. I’m just a beautiful woman.” Margaret Cho

What Do You Know about Women’s Equality Day? It is the commemoration of a very auspicious date, August 26, 1920, when women in the USA, under the ratification of the 19th Amendment of the Constitution, got the right to vote. As a mother of two young adults, I know how that critical step helped define women’s participation in the political process, and continues to impact the lives of women of all generations; mine, millennials, and beyond. When some folks read about women’s equality and dismiss it, they do so because they have either no knowledge of the journey and achievements we have made to crack that glass ceiling or because, as beneficiaries of the struggle to empower women, they have not stopped to consider how we got from there to here… Without the ground work laid by the suffragettes and other bold women around the globe, many of us would still be considered chattel or property owned by our fathers and husbands. Back then, women had no say and no property rights either. How far have we really come? Sadly, not far enough. There are parts of our world where women still do not exercise full rights of citizenship and that is why we must continue to champion gender parity for all. Above and below, I’ve added quotes from women about our lives, goals and expectations. Enjoy and share a quote of your own in the comments.READ:Daring to Be Ourselves: Influential Women Share Insights on Courage, Happiness and Finding Your Own Voice by Marianne Schnall

“For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women.” Elizabeth Blackwell

Motivation Mondays: Women’s Equality Day #Quotes

The Power of Gold | Rio Olympics 2016 | The New York Times
At the 2012 Olympics, Brazilian judoka Rafaela Silva was a favorite to make the podium, but she was disqualified. In 2016, Silva entered Rio’s Olympics as a long shot to medal.

We’re changing ourselves to fit the world instead of changing the world to fit women. Gloria Steinem
Get over the feeling that the two words don’t go together–women and power. The fact is, if we don’t put the two together and don’t understand how power changes complexion in the hands of women, then we’re not going to make it. We have to own our personal power. Jane Fonda
In my opinion, the most important thing as a woman leader — and I learned this early through a whole bunch of great women who were in my life (and men, I have to say) — is that if you have a position of leadership and power and you don’t use it in a different way, then you’re wasting it. So when people used to say to me when I was the first woman president of PBS, “Well, you know, does that mean that as a woman you’re going to be a different kind of president?” And I would say, “Well, I hope so!” Pat Mitchell
“Just be what it is that you are, and that is just fine. You don’t have to be what you’re not in any way. Live that and live that fully, and that is where you discover ecstasy. You can’t really have ecstasy as something other than yourself.” Alice Walker
“I am a feminist. I’ve been female for a long time now. I’d be stupid not to be on my own side.” Maya Angelou
Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.” Oprah Winfrey
“Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.” Amelia Earhart
“I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We’ve been taught that silence would save us, but it won’t.” Audre Lorde
“Women’s liberation is the liberation of the feminine in the man and the masculine in the woman.” Corita Kent

Did you know that even though the modern Olympics started in 1896, women were not allowed to participate in the Olympics until 1900, and their participation was in Lawn Tennis alone. Gradually, a few more doors opened and by 1928, women’s athletics and gymnastics were added. Watching the 2016 Rio Olympics, and seeing women like Simone Biles, Kathy Ledeker, Elaine Thompson, Simone Manuel, Rafaela Silva and so many more inspire the crowds as they won hard earned gold medals, I was reminded of how far we have come as competitors, change agents and motivators. We continue to break barriers in many fields and as we do so, we inspire the younger generation to aim higher. While we have come a long way in achieving some modicum of gender parity, there is room for more progress both here in the USA and globally. I included Rafaela’s video above because she is a product of the poverty stricken Favelas in Brazil; she turned her life around by learning to put her fiery energy, that used to lead her to street fights, into the martial arts and to begin competing in Judo competitions. After a disastrous turn in 2012, she stayed motivated to improve her technique and finally, she won big, in her native land, in 2016.READ These Articles:This Graphic Shows Why We Still Need Women’s Equality DayWomen’s Equality DayWhy Women’s Equality Still Isn’t Protected by the Constitution

Motivation Mondays: Women’s Equality Day #Quotes – Poster

Motivation Mondays: Women’s Equality Day #Quotes – Poster

The details for Motivation Mondays are below. Join in! The themes for July and August 2016 are:

“If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse gift will find a fitting place.” Margaret Mead

I can’t explain exactly why it lives within me for so long and passionately. But race matters to me; racial equality matters to me, as does gender. There is something about these kinds of social injustices that go to the deep of me. Sue Monk Kidd
If there’s specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can’t change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies. Kathryn Bigelow
I mean, I absolutely call myself a feminist. And by that, I mean a woman who believes that your opportunities should not be constrained by your gender, that women should be entitled to the same opportunities as men. Ayelet Waldman
What everyone in the astronaut corps shares in common is not gender or ethnic background, but motivation, perseverance, and desire – the desire to participate in a voyage of discovery. Ellen Ochoa
“Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.” Louisa May Alcott
“Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.” Susan B. Anthony
“In passing, also, I would like to say that the first time Adam had a chance he laid the blame on a woman.” Nancy Astor
“The family unit plays a critical role in our society and in the training of the generation to come.” Sandra Day O’Connor
“Something which we think is impossible now is not impossible in another decade.” Constance Baker Motley

Across the globe, issues that impact women’s lives negatively prevail; women still earn less than men and, in some nations, the education of women is not considered a priority. We simply cannot pretend that everything is perfect and that women’s equality day is an anomaly. When I was growing up, it was perfectly normal to get an education, even advanced degrees, and then let it all go to get married and raise a family. You could work but, the focus was on being the main caregiver to the kids in the household. Women who took maternity leave were soon diverted to the Mommy track or encouraged to give up the position to a more “available” male cohort. Today, we see some changes in the horizon but those expectations, while still practiced in some companies, are now covert. To sit back on our laurels and assume women’s equality is ubiquitous is to negate the tremendous effort made by women who gave their all to the cause. Until every woman/every girl has access to an education, equal pay for equal work, parity across the board, we must continue to speak up about it. For more inspiring quotes on the subject, scroll to the bottom of my post for many more.

Enjoy this FREE Video: Forward Into Light- DVD
A short documentary about Inez Milholland who was a tireless advocate for gender equality, pacifism, racial justice, unions and free speech in the early Twentieth Century.

Positive Motivation Tip: Each one can teach one and empower a few. We can do it!

Motivation Mondays is open to anyone who wishes to share a motivational quote, photo, personal challenge or a post that encourages others to start the week on an upbeat note.Basic Instructions: Each week, I will have a motivation word to help us create a response. (See listed words for the months above/below)Email address: You may email or share your post as a comment and I will add it to the round-up of related posts. email it to: contact(@)mirthandmotivation(.)comCategory tag: – Share your post using Motivation MondaysTwitter hashtag: – Use this on Twitter #MotvnMDedicated Page: There is a dedicated page for Motivation Mondays. It has the same instructions and will include other helpful tools and a link to the round-upFacebook Page:MotivationOnMondays Join our page and add your post and/or any motivational piece you think will be helpful to others.Facebook Community: We have a Facebook community forum to compliment the page. It serves as another way to share uplifting posts and thoughts. Please join in and add your voice.

Badge: – I created a fun badge using PicMonkey’s free photo editing tools. You can create your own, use WordPress’ integrated tool on your blog or you are welcome to use mine. (see dedicated page)Tag: – Motivation MondaysHashtag: – #MotvnMRelated Posts

“We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road—the one “less traveled by”—offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.” Rachel Carson
“We’ve chosen the path to equality, don’t let them turn us around.” Geraldine Ferraro
“You can do one of two things; just shut up, which is something I don’t find easy, or learn an awful lot very fast, which is what I tried to do.” Jane Fonda
“If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.” Margaret Fuller
“My address is like my shoes. It travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong.” Mother Jones
“Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.” Janis Joplin
“Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” Helen Keller
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
“I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.” Golda Meir
“I think the key is for women not to set any limits.” Martina Navratilova

“People think at the end of the day that a man is the only answer [to fulfillment]. Actually a job is better for me.” Princess Diana
“Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Eleanor Roosevelt
“I think it’s very important for everyone in America to realize right now the state of our country, not just on this issue but on a lot of issues, that it is time to get active again. People have just sat back and just sort of said, oh, let somebody else do it for a long time, and we’re seeing what’s happening to the country, even freedom of speech. It’s not going well. So I think this is a real opportunity for people to see, yes, if you do get out and you do get active, there are other people there. You just have to seek them out.” Mary Steenburgen
“In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: either she’s a feminist or a masochist.” Gloria Steinem
“The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.” Gloria Steinem
“I am also very proud to be a liberal. Why is that so terrible these days? The liberals were liberators—they fought slavery, fought for women to have the right to vote, fought against Hitler, Stalin, fought to end segregation, fought to end apartheid. Liberals put an end to child labor and they gave us the five-day work week! What’s to be ashamed of?” Barbra Streisand
“We still live in a world in which a significant fraction of people, including women, believe that a woman belongs and wants to belong exclusively in the home.” Rosalyn Sussman
“You can tell how high a society is by how much of its garbage is recycled.” Dhyani Ywahoo
“It’s so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that’s what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower is to bloom.” Alice Walker
“I’ve learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.” Martha Washington
“As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.” Virginia Woolf
If we’re by ourselves, we come to feel crazy and alone. We need to make alternate families of small groups of women who support each other, talk to each other regularly, can speak their truths and their experiences and find they’re not alone in them, that other women have them, too…. It makes such a huge difference. Gloria Steinem

Sisters: talk to each other, be connected and informed, form women’s circles, share your stories, work together, and take risks. Together we are invincible. Isabel Allende
You are more powerful than you know; you are beautiful just as you are. Melissa Etheridge
We need to help them really internalize the message that good enough is good enough. We don’t need to be perfect. We’re not supposed to be perfect; we’re supposed to be complete. And you can’t be complete if you’re trying to be perfect. Jane Fonda

It’s time to do something about [the environment]. And if we don’t do it now it’s going to be too late…. I think people get scared that they’re not going to be able to do it perfectly, they’re going to be criticized, they’re going to be like, “Well, I’m not totally green.” Well, you know what? At this point, we don’t care. Just a shade of green is enough right now. Move a little bit closer toward this. Because the more people start moving closer and closer to it, that’s something that collectively makes a difference. Cameron Diaz
It doesn’t matter what word we use, if it has the same content, it will be treated in the same way. There are other words–there’s “womanist,” there’s “mujerista,” there’s “women’s liberationist”–all mean the same thing and they get the same ridicule. I think we just need to choose what word we feel comfortable with that says women are full human beings, and whatever that word is, it will get a lot of opposition. But it will also attract a lot of support. But this is a revolution, not a public relations movement. Gloria Steinem
“Achieving gender equality requires the engagement of women and men, girls and boys. It is everyone’s responsibility.” Ban Ki-moon
“Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.” Kofi Annan
What a country needs to do is be fair to all its citizens – whether people are of a different ethnicity or gender. Chinua Achebe

Related

Being a women it makes me sad I didn’t know about this Women’s Equality Day. Reading your post has reminded me of all the things women have worked so hard to achieve. I hope to teach this to my daughter when she gets older.

Some great voices here Eliz. You know I’ve had many conversations with young women about how when I was in my teens there would be different pay scales for men and women, even in civil service jobs. So often they are indifferent about voting because they take for granted the things that were fought so hard for just a century ago!

Exactly Gilly! Some take it all for granted because they are the beneficiaries of the hard work and the way paved by women who fought and even died for gender parity. They don’t think we need to keep the effort up.

I hear people talking about this all of the time and hear it on the news, among friends, etc. I had no idea there was such inequality out there. I obviously work for myself so I am oblivious to some of the real world employment issues with women. This is sad, hopefully we can help!

What I love about the Olympics is the inspiring stories of athletes who rose against all odds to achieve a goal. By the same token, women have risen against the odds to break through in many fields. We can do our bit by educating ourselves, our children and celebrating the achievements of women globally. When we spread the joy, it comes back to us. 🙂